Shakopee focuses on indoor tennis complex, community center

A volley of activity related to city sports amenities is on tap in Shakopee.

The City Council and the Shakopee Tennis Association are closer to an agreement that would allow the nonprofit to develop the Shakopee Tennis and Education Center.

And there's movement toward yet another attempt to improve the city's community center.

The indoor tennis complex, which would include classrooms, a community room, a computer lab and a retail pro shop, would cost $8 million, according to Dave Forbes, the association's president.

A second phase, which would include eight outdoor courts with lighting, would cost another $2 million, Forbes said. The center would occupy six acres of land in the city's Shutrop Park.

"The Tennis and Education Center is a phenomenal project," Mayor Brad Tabke said. "We are really excited about it and the tennis association taking the lead on getting it done. It will be a great amenity for the community. They're doing a wonderful job and really moving to the next steps quickly."

Jamie Polley, the city's parks and recreation director, said she thought the tennis center would see heavy use and would particularly benefit the east side of the city, which has few other recreational amenities.

"I see a lot more opportunities to collaborate on different programming and community events at this facility."

City Council members have approved the terms under which the association would use the park for construction of the indoor tennis building and directed staff to present the terms to the association.

Forbes said the association's attorney is reviewing the terms and likely would present a few proposed tweaks to the city attorney, which the council in turn would have to approve.

When both sides have accepted the terms, the association will begin a capital campaign to raise the $8 million needed to build the Tennis and Education Center, Forbes said.

That figure is less than half the cost of an earlier estimate, Forbes said, with the association having had further time to get input from additional contractors.

"The project is moving along," Forbes said. "It's a huge capital campaign for us. We're going about it slowly and methodically. [The center] is something that when it's done is going to be of great value to the community. We would prefer to raise all the money and keep it as close to the original plan as possible."

Elsewhere on the city recreational front, Tabke said he hoped a task force, comprised of two City Council members and two Shakopee school board members, will serve up recommendations for what he is referring to as "Community Center 2.0."

That's his catchall term for proposals to update and expand the city's "woefully inadequate" community center, which he said has two basketball courts, a small fitness center and one ice sheet.

"It doesn't meet the needs of our community," Tabke said of the existing community center. "It doesn't have the facilities or amenities for a community of 40,000 people. We are working to figure out how we can take that to the next level and if or how that would possibly dovetail with the tennis association's project, how that all could go together."

Ideas under consideration for the next-generation community center, Tabke said, include an indoor-outdoor swimming pool, a fieldhouse and a second ice sheet.

Tabke said he hoped the task force would present its recommendations in time for them to come before the council at its Nov. 18 meeting.

Council members knew the city would outgrow the existing community center when they approved construction in the mid-1990s, Tabke said, when the city was much smaller.

The city had $5 million available to build the center and moved forward with the project despite the fact that a referendum that would have generated another $3 million for the center failed by two votes.

"They did that and then everybody on the City Council and all of the city staff was either not re-elected or fired within the next year or two," Tabke said. "It was a big, big deal."

Voters have rejected proposals to raise money to improve the community center.